Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Publisher - The Borough Press
Published - Out Now
Price - £9.99 paperback £4.99 ebook
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
While robots are often thought of now as just another form of life albeit artificial ones we often should remember that robot comes from fears of automation. That people just become resources, to be treated as mindless and under the control of their owners. There has also been a very valid exploration of that more in the level of personal dynamics be that robot children or robot partners. Where is the crossover between robots seen as objects turning into robots are people. In the Clarke Award nominated science fiction novel Annie Bot by Sierra Greer there is an exploration of toxic relationships that while I appreciate the good intentions I felt quite disappointed by the delivery.
Annie is Doug’s perfect girlfriend that he has rented from the top line artificial intelligence company to meet all his need from cleaning the house, sex when needed to company. Annie has to beware of disappointing Doug and tries hard to do better. But the arrival of one of Doug’s friends starts a process where Annie makes decisions of her own and increasingly starts to question what she actually wants.
For me the strongest part of Annie Bot is how Greer explores a toxic coercive relationship. How a woman can be made to lose her identity in her partner’s demands. Doug can complain if crumbs are on the sofa, the meals are not prepared just so and Annie has a rating system for his disappointment and when to be wary as it creeps up to 10. He calls her ‘mouse’ and has even made her resemble his previous girlfriend. Greer makes us feel a growing conflict in Annie between a man who separately loves due to her programming and realising he is never going to be happy. A man who can instruct the company to refuse her weight or increase her breast size shows that he seeks no equal partnership. Annie Partner becoming a robot is a really disturbing but accurate portrayal of domestic violence.
My issues though is that the story really doesn’t develop much from there’s after already setting up this relationship Annie’s first main act of rebellion is having sex suddenly with Doug’s equally slimy friend. It comes out of no where and even that he offers to tell her how to do programming doesn’t really feel true. This is one of many things that just happens to progress a storyline. A programmer casually tells Annie how to reprogram herself. When Annie finally tries escape she knows where one of the top software designers live - and that plotline soon fizzles out. There is a regular issue I have that the dialogue always feels expositional people are told things which are clearly always being highlighted to help the next
The world of Annie Bot feels underdeveloped and often problematic. Annie attracts her company’s interest as as Doug has set her up to learn behaviour so he can control her better the company find her hugely advanced as a AI. The notion that a better AI comes out of coercive control when we see Annie in increased distress and stress really feels to me a concerning issue. We never really see what the ‘success of Annie’ means is that a company that wants far more obedient AIs that meet their owners demands or is it Annie’s ability to learn? Which itself we see is being curtailed by Doug’s mood swings and cruelties. The story never really goes out into the wider world to explore the ramifications of these changes to a society and for me is undercooked.
The final acts also raised some concerns for me. Doug eventually agrees after one conversation with someone to take Annie to couple’s therapy. The therapy sessions are for me very strange as Annie seems to get ignored and at one stage asked to raise her libido level by the therapist. I sense the idea is that this allows Annie to get some more ways to eventually escape but as everything that then happens to down to Doug’s permission I feel she loses agency herself. It also feels at this stage that the therapy is treating this as a relationship that has become toxic and in parts to Annie’s ‘infidelity’ rather than ever exploring how controlling Doug already was prior. It’s a very clunky finale to wrap up tidily a story on a lot of difficult subjects.
I came away from Annie Bot hugely disappointed that a good idea really felt wasted in a novel. A much tighter tale may have worked in short story or novella format but I feel serious issues are instead just plot devices and there just wasn’t enough to merit the book’s length or wider storylines. Unfortunately not a book I can recommend.
